Kentucky's governor says children were physically harmed, poisoned, sexually assaulted, and tried drugs due to having the day off Friday.

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Governor Matt Bevin announces that he will veto the entire budget and the tax reform bill during a morning press conference in Frankfort.
April 9, 2018(Photo: Michael Clevenger/Louisville Courier Journal)Buy Photo

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Republican majorities in the Kentucky House and Senate on Friday ignored the complaints and overrode the vetoes of Republican Gov. Matt Bevin of the state budget bill and a tax bill that helps to fund it.

"I cast no aspersions towards anyone. ...I deeply respect the governor. I respect all of the members of this body," said Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, as he cast the final crucial vote that overrode Bevin's veto of the tax bill by a Senate vote of 20-18.

Echoing the comments of many Republicans, Stivers said additional revenue from that tax bill "will go to filling those gaps" in the state budget.

"Maybe the governor doesn't consider the General Assembly a separate and equal branch of government," Hoover said.

By Friday evening, Bevin had made no further public statements about the course he will take now. But he has exclusive authority to call a special legislative session to revisit the tax and budget issues, or any topic he chooses.

Friday's overrides of the tax and budget bills effectively brought to an end the most important actions of the tumultuous 2018 regular legislative session that began on Jan. 2.

However, lawmakers plan to reconvene on Saturday - the 60th day of a session that under the Kentucky Constitution can last no more than 60 days - to wrap up some unfinished business. The main action awaiting lawmakers is a "cleanup bill" to make changes in the tax bill.

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Gov. Matt Bevin on Monday said he will veto the tax reform bill and the entire two-year budget proposal that Kentucky's Republican-run legislature passed last week.

One part of that bill, according to the chairmen of the House and Senate budget committees, will delete from the tax bill a provision they say inadvertently suspended a key tax incentive relied upon by some of the state's major manufacturers, including Ford, Toyota, and GE.

Besides overriding Bevin's vetoes of the tax and budget bills, the General Assembly also on Friday overrode his veto of the bill that will give cities, counties and school district more years to phase-in huge increases in soaring pension costs they face beginning July 1.

Bevin supported that part of the bill but vetoed it because he said another provision making it easier for agencies such as mental health service providers and local health departments to leave the state's troubled retirement system would damage the system.

That bill too now becomes law.

The key votes Friday were the House and Senate votes to override the veto of tax bill. Bevin explained in his veto message that the tax bill was not nearly as comprehensive as it ought to be, and he said it would not generate as much revenue as lawmakers predicted.

The irony of the debate was that most teachers, who packed the Capitol two weeks ago to blast Republicans for passing a pension bill they oppose, were now supporting the GOP effort to override the vetoes because the tax bill generates an estimated $436 million that will largely be spent to avoid cuts in public school funding.

"This bill is not perfect. The process was, to say it mildly, less than desirable. But this is a bill for education," said Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville. "That's why our teachers demand an override."

But Democrats complained that the tax bill (which reduces the income tax rate while expanding the sales tax to 17 services and raising the cigarette tax) shifts the tax burden to people with low and moderate incomes'"I can't stomach voting for a revenue bill - and budget funded by it - that increases taxes on the poor to fund a tax break for the wealthy," said Rep. Angie Hatton, D-Whitesburg.

Rep. Stephen Rudy, the Paducah Republican who chairs the House budget committee, recounted how the governor has been calling for comprehensive tax reform for more than a year. But Rudy noted that Bevin has never presented his plan.